"Food Stamps Make America Stronger"

Last weekend Heidi (my coworker) and I set up a table at the "Tucson Money Faire." It was an event about financial education--they had lots of financial resources for low-income families, free credit reports, info about free tax preparation, raffled off $100 bills every hour, etc.

We were pretty proud of our little Food Stamps setup. We handed out quite a few applications, a flyer that I made, entitled "6 Easy Steps to Getting Food Stamps," and lots of goodies that the USDA sent us (pencils, pens, magnets, and flying discs!) We also offered to prescreen people for their Food Stamp eligibility using a handy excel spreadsheet we have. A few people took us up on that, and I think a few more Tucson residents will be getting food stamps as a result of their stop at our table!

It's exciting to see the work actually beginning, after all our researching and planning and sitting in front of the computer. We should be out in the community conducting Food Stamp trainings starting in January. Hopefully by the end of my year of service there will be hundreds (maybe thousands?!) of Pima County residents using Food Stamps as a result of our efforts! I do love my FS--recommend them highly.